Stephen Malkmus On Scoring TV and Covering “Margaritaville”

"Flaked" is a Netflix series released last week that revolves around Chip, a man in his late-thirties whose idea of telling the truth is constantly telling lies. Set in the gentrifying neighborhood of Venice, Los Angeles, Chip — played by Will Arnett, who also wrote and co-created the show — is connected to his beach community, but detached from the wider world around him. Chip sells stools at a designer stool store. He’s a wounded playboy trying to find true love, and a pillar at his AA meetings. His buddies are also men in their late-thirties whose idea of living is constantly trying to squeeze in a round of paddle tennis.

In addition to the inspired music supervision, Stephen Malkmus was asked to bring his understated guitar work to score the rest of the show, including the theme song. Throughout his decades-long career with Pavement, Silver Jews, The Jicks, and beyond, this was the first time Malkmus had ever composed anything for television. “Somehow they got in touch with my accountant,” Malkmus tells Pitchfork dryly over the phone, regarding how he got involved. Malkmus was on board without reading the script. He trusted Arnett’s reputation, so much so that Malkmus recorded a messy, bluesy cover of the Jimmy Buffett song “Margaritaville” just for the show.

Malkmus was also sold on the idea that if his compositions didn’t work well, there was always a backup plan. “They send you a list of places where they want songs and if you totally flame out, they can always buy stock music for like $1,000 if you blow it.” It can be confidently stated that he did not blow it.

Pitchfork: Have you seen the completed show?

Stephen Malkmus: I just saw it when I was watching it without the music, but I haven’t heard it with all with all the other final syncs with the other bands. When I was doing the music, they had a lot of songs that were just wishful thinking, or songs they didn’t know if they could afford. There were songs that they wanted me to imitate, like, “We wanted this song by Jamie xx but it’s too expensive. Can you do it?” There would be a Hot Chip song as a cue, so I would record something and label the track “Hot Chip Knockoff” and send it to them. The music supervisor [Chris Douridas] is a big music fan, and he wanted songs that a 38-year-old white indie person would like.

Pitchfork: Your music in the show is instrumental, but there’s a song you wrote with lyrics that’s used in the opening credits. What were they looking for there?

SM: They had this other song in there by Django Django, that was what I saw first. It was kind of a Beck-sounding funk. But that fell through, I don’t know why. So I had a tune that might go on there. It was unfinished, but I had enough for thirty seconds. We were kind of still in negotiations for that, but it came out. It’s happening!

Pitchfork: Was there anything about the show’s themes — gentrification of Venice, the California lifestyle, the post-addiction man putting his life back together — that resonated with you? What made you want to work on "Flaked," basically?

SM: Well, they asked me, that’s one part [laughs]. And Will Arnett, he’s pretty funny and has a good track record. The whole Venice gentrification sitcom part I didn’t really care about one way or another because I don’t know Venice that well. But the fact that [Arnett’s] character was kind of a sham — lying to himself — I could relate to that. It was dark in that way, and it wasn’t completely like "Friends" or something.

My experience in comedy is more "Eastbound and Down," where the music in the show mocks the character. There is a Hollywood way of telling you when you didn’t do something good: They say, “It’s too on the nose. You’re not wrong, really.” So they didn’t want the music to be too comedic when the person was comedic, they just wanted music that sounds like music I make within a relative parameter.

Pitchfork: You also had to cover Jimmy Buffett.

SM: Will was probably a little embarrassed to ask me, he thought he had to use his seductive Will ways to convince me to do it. He called me and was like, “I got this idea, and I don’t know how to say it. You’re gonna play ‘Margaritaville’ by Jimmy Buffett.” That was the punchline. He was embarrassed to ask, like that I might balk at this potentially cheesy thing. So I did it in a Blue Cheer, San Francisco blues-rock style. I’m not a Jimmy Buffett hater at all, he’s got some cool stuff, like his early days with Rancho Deluxe and his whole Tom McGuane thing.

When you do a cover it’s a way to — I’ve noticed even on Pitchfork — get attention clicking on something. At the Quiet Music Festival, [The Jicks] did this Nirvana song, very unrehearsed and not important, but then all the websites were like, “They covered Nirvana!” People like covers of famous people [laughs].

Pitchfork: Did you find out anything new about “Margaritaville” that you never realized before?

SM: Not really. I knew that song, we all know that song, it is what it is. Just “Wastin away…” goes with the show, I knew what it’s like. And that’s why it’s so universal! There’s not much to discover in it, but that’s okay. Like, “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” there’s not much to discover in that, you got it right there.

Pitchfork: One of my favorite moments of scoring is this sweeping guitar piece that happens when we discover Will Arnett’s character is drinking wine out of his Nalgene bottle that’s labeled “kombucha.”

SM: They loved that part! I had to do that in 30 minutes, that’s where the Jamie xx song was. I’m glad that it comes across universally that way.

Pitchfork: Before this, what was the closest you had ever came to scoring a movie or TV show?

SM: Some people have asked me to do soundtracks for small, indie things, but I didn’t have good recording gear or drums that would let me do it. I had enough of those elements now that I could do it by myself kind of quickly. There were many times we did advertisements, though. One time in Silkworm, we did something for Coca-Cola — a song for the NFL — but they didn’t use it in the end. There were executives at the studio while we were recording it, who at the time were like, “This is great!” But it wasn’t that great, and I’m not surprised they didn’t use it.

Pitchfork: Some big-name singers will record songs that are supposed to sound like them for commercials, but they’ll do it anonymously.

SM: I haven’t done that, I don’t have a manager, and no one has asked me, and I don’t sing that well. I know Cat Power gets a lot of those things because she has the honey voice. I’m limited to doing these kind of shows, but I would do this again. The dude from Oingo Boingo probably has a mansion in Beverly Hills from doing this.

Pitchfork: What’s next for you this year?

SM: Besides winning the Emmy for Best Soundtrack, there’s not much going on.